Friday, June 29, 2012

Canada Day by Train IV

It's time once again to celebrate Canada Day by sharing some photos of our great country from on or along the rails.  To help you enjoy these photos, I've added lyrics from that anthemic Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land" written in 1940, Canadianized by the Travellers in 1955.  To make this experience multi-media, just click here to listen to the Canadian version, to accompany these photos a mari usque ad mare taken by yours truly, as well as by my brother as noted.  Turn your speaker volume up, scroll down and sing along!

As I went walking that ribbon of highway/I saw above me that endless skyway
Gas and grain at Conquest, Saskatchewan (above), CP 5912-5900-5676 hauling grain cars at 50 mph along Highway 18 between Bienfait and Frobisher, Saskatchewan in 1989 (D.J. Gagnon photo, below):
I saw below me that golden valley/This land was made for you and me
Morning grazing at Endako, British Columbia:
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling/and the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
Roadside in Glenside, Saskatchewan taken in 1986:
As the fog was lifting, a voice was chanting/This land was made for you and me
Misty morning at Mileage 48 on CP's Heron Bay Sub, VIA Park car view:
This land is your land/this land is my land/from Bonavista to Vancouver Island/from the Arctic Circle to the Great Lakes waters/this land was made for you and me.
Stopped streamside at Sockeye, British Columbia, waiting for a ballast train's derailed caboose to be rerailed at Tyee, Mileage 68 of CN's Skeena Sub, aboard VIA's Skeena east out of Prince Rupert, 1986:
I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps/to the fir-clad forests of our mighty mountains
Mountains that are both snow-clad and fir-clad dwarf VIA No 1's  rainbow consist near Banff, Alberta in October, 1980:
And all around me a voice was calling/This land was made for you and me
This land is your land/this land is my land/from Bonavista
CN NF210 915 kicking cars hard at Corner Brook, Newfoundland, 1988 (D.J. Gagnon photo):
to Vancouver Island
CP Hotels' Empress in Victoria, British Columbia, 1980:

From the Arctic Circle 
Slightly south of that, but still fairly far north, National Harbours Board terminal elevator at Churchill, Manitoba, 1987 (D.J. Gagnon photo):
To the Great Lakes waters/This land was made for you and me.
Two ribbons of steel skirt Lake Superior on CP's mainline east of Firehill, Ontario:
Happy Canada Day! Bonne Fete Canada!

Running extra...

The Patient Canadian: CBC News reports that Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia held its annual Moose Draw (not Moose Jaw as in Saskatchewan) at which unlucky but undaunted hunters show up annually, some for up to thirty years, waiting for a chance to bag a moose.  You'll never see an uglier, more majestic creature.

The Accented Canadian: CBC's Colleen Jones reported courtside at an Olympics volleyball match "that if the Fijian team brought home a medal, each team member would be given a hooose and a cayre" translation: a house and a car.  Inspirational talk; chances of Fiji becoming a volleyball dynasty were likely poor.

The Decorated Canadian: Major David Currie of the South Alberta Regiment supervises the surrender of once-invincible German troops at St-Lambert-sur-Dives, France on August 19, 1944.  This photo of Currie  "shown at left with pistol in hand...closest anyone has ever come to photographing a man winning the Victoria Cross" gives way to this photo, less often seen, of the now-prisoners heading to captivity. Both photos are studies in faces and postures, of brave audacity and shameless surrender, of victory and defeat.

17 comments:

Canadian Train Geek said...

Love those "critters" at Churchill!

Happy Dominion Day to one and all... it will always be Dominion Day to me.

Zartok-35 said...

Ah, Conquest; good to see how it looked back in the day. I was out that way last weekend, visiting our cousins' farm at Milden. I can now say that Outlook Saskatchewan is a great place to get lost.
Your brother has some very nice pictures too! I like that junk-car intermodal.
Enjoy Canada day, Mr. Gagnon!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous photos of a fabulous country. As an expat Canadian, I feel whstful and longing seeing the beauty of the land I love. One small, petty note; It was Woody Guthrie, not his son Arlo that wrote "This Land is Your Land".
Cheers,
Andrew Kerr
Sydney, Australia

Eric said...

Andrew and Elijah,

Thanks for your kind comments and Canada Day wishes.

Elijah, that was Conquest in 1986 and I was lucky to be able to work in the Esso sign with good lighting. I drove around that neck-of-the-woods photographing elevators and I'm glad I did. The scrap cars was part of CN's TerraTransport scheme to make all rail traffic containerized in Newfoundland, even cars-on-cars it seems.

Andrew, glad that the photos brought Canada your way, on the other side of the world. I'll make that correction about Woody. Arlo is playing a concert in this area, and a colleague and I were discussing it and it must have stuck.

Happy Canada Day to you both,
Eric

Eric said...

Hi Steve, Happy Dominion Day to you too, and all Trackside Treasure readers that celebrate it still (remember the grocery store of the same name?). I wasn't going to bring it up, so I'm glad you did!

I'm sure those little 'critters' are in the CTSG. My brother has some great VIA photos at Churchill from the same era that I'll be including in my next VIA book - much wider regional representation from across the Dominion!

Eric

Anonymous said...

dear eric, well how canadian this this. this land is your land is truly a piece of american folk music turned canadian. the travellers from toronto with mr. gray or grey turned the song in 1967 into a song that everyone could hum or sing some of the words to. from bonivista to vancouver island is a true comparison to from the new york island to the redwwod forests, a great version of woodie guthrie turned canadian folk tune. HAPPY DOMINION DAY from the center of CANADA, winnipeg. via i spy fo follow on monday. schuff.

Eric said...

Glad you liked that tune, Brian. Thanks for your Dominion Day wishes.

And apparently those two 1930-era, Plymouth-built Churchill critters are still there in their enginehouse, unused and landlocked.

Eric

Anonymous said...

dear eric...hello from SWELTER-PEG. the temp of 31 and hum make it 40 plus c. the folks down east and in the GTA know all about the crazy days of july and august, but for us prairie folk, were ready to lay/lie down and die. reminds me of switching cars in john st. in TO in 1983 with the cp and working 15-23 00 at parkdale and lambton yards in this local temps, these people are crazy,get me out of here and back to the sud. i spy update...jun 30 via no 1 at Diamond mb...via 6449-6406 with 21 cars and Revelstoke pk at the tail, and on Jul 02 via no 1 at Port JCT via 6411-6434 with 21 cars and Assiniboine pk at the drumhead. Eric you have finally got to show more views of the cp Canadian as it should be-ACTION-RED. from winnipeg with sweat on my forehead-schuff.

Eric said...

I thought, what could be more Canadian than the Canadian on the header photo for Canada Day, as an alternative to Mark Perry's fine 'coke can' covered hopper shot near Molson?[hey, Molson, that's really Canadian too, now that I think of it]

Thinking ahead to next year, I think it'll be a red & white theme, and the multimark and CP Rail colour scheme sure fits. Nice to see those healthy VIA No 1 car counts from the Peg.

Keep cool, Brian.
Eric

Bryan said...

Great shots, particularly the "caterpillar" crawling across the prairie, and the line-up of grain elevators.

-Bryan

Eric said...

Thanks for your kind comments, Bryan. I must credit my brother with the "caterpillar" shot. His caption information mentions something about the train being over speed for that part of the sub, and opening up a lead on his car on the paralleling highway. Three SD's - lots o' power. That part of Saskatchewan was dry!

To get imaginative elevator shots sometimes required getting under a tree for framing, or crouching in a nearby field. Most towns had an elevator row, so there were possibilities. I'll be doing an upcoming post on those solitary, small elevators that sometimes cropped up in my travels. Talk about all alone on the bald prairie.

Eric

Anonymous said...

dear eric, its monday and i had the mailman ring twice. He came at 10-45 in the a-m and just as luck would have it, bahroom time. thanks for the packages and post, arr in fine condition. went to jason and rapido site to see the fine words from the model master and would like to thank him for his visit. here is the i-spy update...july 07, via no 1 at DIAMOND...via 6429-6431 with 22 cars and Tremblant Park, and today July 09 via no 1 with 6402-6441-6406 with 20 cars and Revelstoke Park seen at Diamond.thats it for now, i again wish to say thanks for the return of the photos that are not used for your project -part two. And to JASON SHRON, please pass on this, many thanks for his company on Monday and for the time to visit. My thanks Jason. Thanks to Eric. From swelter-peg, SCHUFF.

Eric said...

Forwarded as requested, Bryan. Thanks for the Canadian details. Glad the photos arrived in good shape. Trackside Treasure staff retreat this week, concentrating on VIA book, but great to hear from you.
Thanks for your comments,
Eric

Anonymous said...

regarding your picture captioned - "Mountains that are both snow-clad and fir-clad dwarf VIA No 1's rainbow consist near Banff, British Columbia in October, 1980:"
Banff is in Alberta.

Eric said...

No, they moved it for a few years in the early eighties to make room in Alberta. Of course you are right, A., and I will revise that. (BC can also stand for Brain Confusion) Another common mistake, often seen in the Doug Wright cartoons from the Montreal newspaper, was to spell it 'Bbanf'. Originally, named after the ancestral home of some of the CPR's principals - Banffshire, Scotland.

Eric

Andrew Baird said...

Good day!

Any chance you have any more shots from Newfoundland?

That container car carrying all the crushed auto's will make a great modeling project.

Thanks
Andrew

Eric said...

Hi Andrew,

Contact me by email as shown in my blog header.

I really have to credit my brother with the photo. And you're right, a cool modelling project.

Thanks for your comment,
Eric